


Gas Station Roses

by Yunimori



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Drabble, Holoforms (Transformers), M/M, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Transformers as Humans, tired fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-13 16:30:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21173990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yunimori/pseuds/Yunimori
Summary: Optimus Prime and Shockwave are uniquely suited to giving a lecture on interstellar, interspecies communications at West Point Academy, being aliens, being on relatively good terms with humans, being military bots, and with one being a leader of their people and the other being a former politician and teacher. The only problem with this is that the closest Terran base of operations for the Cybertronians is in Detroit, Michigan, not West Point, New York. Which means a very long car ride for a couple of tired Cybertronians, and quite a few rest stops so that both humans and aliens in human form can stretch their legs, making the car ride even longer. At least one of those rest stops results in something a bit nicer than a bathroom break and a chance to uncramp muscles, though.





	Gas Station Roses

**Author's Note:**

> I'm copying all of my Shockwave and Optimus/Shockwave ficlets and drabbles from my tumblr accounts over to my ao3 account. Most of these are going to be incredibly short (hence the drabble tag), and either in short-form format or 100 Themes Challenge format.
> 
> This is just for my own peace of mind, making sure they are safe from tumblr's random purges.
> 
> However, feel free to read them and let me know if you enjoyed them!

This was the sixth stop in twice as many hours. Shockwave knew it was important to stop and stretch your legs when you were sitting in a vehicle for hours on end, but honestly, after twelve hours on the road, he was just ready to be _done_ with the trip, painfully stiff arms and legs be damned. He wanted to get back to the base and not even _look_ at a Terran car for the next couple of days. Let him work on his bioelectrical composite data in _peace_, without the anxiety of driving down a busy freeway while being an eighth or less of the size of the vehicles surrounding them.

He wasn’t going to complain out loud, though. Wasn’t in him to do so, and besides, this gods-forsaken trip at least meant he’d been with Pax for the duration. That was better than being at the base without him, wondering if he’d survived the awful roads. 

Still, he couldn’t help the tiny sigh that escaped him as the young Corporal driving the car pulled in to the gas station and stopped. Shockwave was trying to be quiet about it, but apparently the sound was still enough to make Optimus look at him as he opened his door, following the Corporal as he headed inside to pay for gas. “Are you alright?”  
  
Shockwave leaned over, looking up at what he could see of his Endura with the car frame in the way, smiling a bit tiredly. “I’m alright, my Peace. Just kind of ready for this trip to be over.”

Op’s soft chuckle would have been enough of an answer, but he leaned back down again, letting Shockwave see his calm, almost too-gentle blue eyes. “You’re not the only one. But it’ll be over soon enough. While we’re here, you might want to get a snack or a drink though, Bug. I know you’ve not eaten anything since before we left.”  
  
“I have so!” Shockwave’s protest was swift, but silenced just as swiftly by the raised brow he got from his Endura. “Shockwave, I’ve been sitting next to you in this car. You haven’t eaten a thing. Come on, _I’m_ going to go get something to eat, and _I_ have eaten once already today.” At the look on Shockwave’s face, Op’s voice changed slightly, becoming more gentle. “…and you need to stretch anyway, Bug. I saw you tapping your legs earlier. Work some of the kinks out, hm?”  
  
“…you always did know how to make me listen.” Wry as he sounded, there was a quiet smile on Shockwave’s face as he conceded to Op, opening his door and sliding out with a slight wince. Pax was right. He _did_ need to stretch; standing up was nearly impossible for a few moments while his legs decided they had _feeling_ again. It gave Pax enough time to get around the car, though, and before Shockwave knew it, he had an arm around him and Pax was helping to hold him up. “Pax?”  
  
His only response was a smile and a quiet gathering, prompting Shockwave to move with Optimus as they headed inside the gas station. Well…okay. He wouldn’t question it, not if Pax was willing to hold him close.  
  
A tall, dark-skinned man with slightly-greying temples walking with his arm around a slight redheaded Asian man wasn’t the strangest thing the gas station attendant had ever seen. It really wasn’t strange at all, all things considered. The language the two of them spoke to each other, though, and the fact that they’d gotten out of a car driven by an Army man, left the teenager staring while they browsed the shelves.

Shockwave noticed, but really all it did was making him shift a bit, sliding an arm down until he could hold Op’s hand, making his Endura blink at him. “…it’s nothing. Just being stared at again. We might want to switch to English.”

Op shook his head slightly, but complied, a smile briefly tilting the corners of his lips up. “It’s alright, Bug. Pick something out to eat.”  
  
“I am! Though it’s gas station food, all it is is junk food, really…”  
  
“…a bag of chips is not going to ruin you, Shockwave.” 

Shockwave started to retort, but looked up at Op just in time to catch the twinkle in his eyes, prompting him to shove the taller man instead. “_Would_ you quit teasing me?” A soft chuckle was his only answer, and Shockwave wound up huffing at Op for a moment before turning to grab a chocolate-flavoured protein bar off of one of the shelves. “Will this satisfy you?”

Op looked up from grabbing his own snack, a bag of roasted peanuts that was already making Shockwave’s nose wrinkle up. “If it will keep your sugar from dropping and you passing out on me, then it’ll do, Shockwave.”  
  
“I’m not going to pass out, Pax! I’ve gone longer than this without food and been fine.”  
  
“You’ve also generally had enough caffeine and sugar to kill a lesser-constitutioned bot at the same time, dear. You’ve had neither today and have been awake since 4:30, so _eat_ something.”  
  
“I’m getting this thing, it’s enough!” Shockwave frowned slightly at his Endura, then moved away, heading for the coolers. “Do you want something to drink? I’m getting a tea…actually scratch that. I’m getting you one too, we’ve both had nothing but water since this morning.”  
  
“I can still drink water, you know.” Op’s voice was mildly amused, which Shockwave paid no attention to as he grabbed two bottles of tea from one of the cooler doors. “I know you can, but if you’re going to eat those peanuts, you need something besides water to wash down the _salt_. Only one of us needs to have hurting legs later, and it doesn’t need to be you.” He couldn’t help but sound tired when he spoke, but that was also something he paid no mind. Tired was a fact of life.  
  
He also knew Pax would indulge him. The comment about his legs hurting would guarantee it if nothing else, and Shockwave felt no shame in using it to his advantage. Whether Op knew it or not, Shockwave worried about him hurting far more than he did himself, and, while he was no _expert_ on how their HLH bodies worked, they were similar enough to ‘normal’ human biological processes that he knew Op needed to _absorb_ the salt in those peanuts, not dilute it, if he didn’t want to have leg cramps later from sitting in the car.

Teas in hand, he walked back to where Pax was waiting for him, ignoring the subtle shaking of his Endura’s head. “Oh hush, you know it’s true, and look, I didn’t get you any of the ‘fancy’ ones.” He held up a plain bottle. “One you’ll drink, I swear. No unholy amounts of sugar.” 

The two of them turned to move up to the register, Shockwave glancing outside to see the Corporal already starting to gas up the car as they stood in the short line. He sighed again. “…how much longer are we supposed to drive before we get there?”  
  
Op put his hand on Shockwave’s back, rubbing gently at the base of his shoulderblades, where his wings normally would be. “Another hour or so and we should be at West Point, Bug. Our lecture isn’t until tomorrow, though, so we’ll have some downtime.”  
  
“I should hope so. I’d hate to have to give half of a lecture at 8 pm after having been _up_ all this time.” There was an unspoken ‘I’d do it if I had to’, but Shockwave would hate it. He’d had no caffeine today in a concentrated effort to _not_ give rise to car-anxiety around humans, and giving a lecture while caffeine-deprived and sore from driving for 12 hours straight was not really his idea of a good time. 

They moved up, and Shockwave pulled his eyes away from outside to lay down his part of their purchase, going from smiling at the wide-eyed teenaged cashier to the ground when he felt his foot tap against something. “…oh.”

“Hm?” Op looked down, studying the top of Shockwave’s unruly head for a moment before leaning around him, looking to see what his easily-distracted Endura had run across now. “…flowers?”  
  
“Oh yeah. We get pots of roses all the time. Nobody ever buys em, though.” The cashier rolled his eyes, ringing up snacks and drinks and bagging them with the easy movements of someone who’s been doing this for their entire high-school career before taking the money Op handed over. “People say they’re too expensive, and not that pretty.”  
  
Shockwave listened, but he didn’t look up, instead reaching down to gently touch the petals of a triad of roses that were partially open, their pale yellow, pink-tipped outside petals slowly starting to open and show off the darker red-orange petals hidden inside. “…people don’t know what they’re talking about. Something that bright and cheerful is needed after a long day,” he murmured, shaking his head slightly, refocusing and looking up, just in time to take the bag the cashier was handing over. “They’re beautiful. Thank you.”  
  
“Welcome.” The cashier smiled. “Have a good night, sirs.”  
  
Shockwave nodded, turning to head back to the car, bag in hand, but paused for a moment when Op didn’t move with him. “Pax? Are you okay?”  
  
Op smiled, looking oddly thoughtful, though he merely waved a hand. “Go ahead and get back in the car, Bug. I’m going to use the restroom first, got something on my hands.”  
  
Shockwave nodded, smiling a bit at his Endura, then headed outside. He spoke with the Corporal for a moment, trying to convince him to take half of the protein bar he’d bought, then slowly got back in the car, hanging the snack bag on the console between the seats in the back so he and Pax could grab what they wanted out of it. Really, Shockwave didn’t want anything to eat. Being in the car this long had nixed any appetite he had, but the tea didn’t sound bad. 

He was fumbling with trying to get the lid off when Pax finally emerged from the gas station, moving to the car quickly and sliding inside before Shockwave looked up, sounding a bit distracted. “Did you get the sticky off your hands, dear?”  
  
Op’s response was to lay six of the pink-yellow-orange roses in Shockwave’s lap and gently take the tea bottle from his hands, opening it with a single twist. He handed it back to his Endura, who was now staring, dumbfounded, at the flowers in his lap, and leaned over slightly to offer a gentle kiss on the side of his head. “I’ll get you one that we can _plant_ when we head home, my Bug, but I thought for now, those would have to do.” 

Shockwave looked up at Pax, some of the tired melting away at the expression of quiet love on Pax’s face, the smile that was showing only in his eyes, though it threatened to show up on his lips. “…Pax, you didn’t have to…”  
  
“But I _wanted_ to.” It was that simple. Shockwave knew it. Op was generally not a touchy-feely bot, not what common ‘policy’ dictated as a ‘romantic’ bot, but he’d always been enough for Shockwave, always knew how to ‘romance’ his Endura with little things that Shockwave understood all too easily. Yet he still managed to catch him completely by surprise at the most odd times. Now was one of _those_, and it left Shockwave quiet for a long moment while he processed (and, truth be told, worked on not letting his emotions get the best of him so he wouldn’t tear up).

Finally, though, just as the Corporal got back into the front seat and started the car, Shockwave managed to gather himself. He leaned against Op, pushing against the floor enough to let him reach the taller man’s cheek, returning the kiss he’d been given with one of his own and a quiet smile that stayed pressed against Op’s skin. “…then thank you, my Peace. They do marvelously. Just like you.”


End file.
